


Fetch

by windandthestars



Series: Never Let Me Go (Were!Fox AU) [1]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fox!Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-11
Updated: 2012-10-11
Packaged: 2017-11-16 02:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windandthestars/pseuds/windandthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ball shivers again and he dives for it one great bound, feet wrapping around her arm, kicking desperately as he sinks his teeth into the soft rubbery material.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fetch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cerie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerie/gifts), [convenientmisfires](https://archiveofourown.org/users/convenientmisfires/gifts).



> Set sometime in season 1 (toward the beginning of the series)

He's bored and she knows it. She has that glimmer in her eye. He's been working for hours without much to hold his attention and while he had tried to pretend there was, he couldn't help but keep glancing up at the tv, the aimless channels she had flicked through.

He's settled down by her feet, sitting cross-legged, using the bed as a table. There's a large desk and an oversized table in this ridiculously posh suite that she's rented them for the week, but they're all too far away from her. It's been a whirlwind of a year and he hasn't seen her much in the last couple of weeks. They're still finding their legs when it comes to this part of their relationship, but he knows for him, he needs to keep her close.

She seems less attached, but she's like that with most things, seemingly aloof even when her broad smiles and crinkling eyes betray her. Even with Ashley, the confines of her relationship never holds steady for long despite the fact he knows without a doubt that Magnus cares for her daughter more fiercely and more completely than she ever has for anyone else.

At times he thinks that should bother him, but it doesn't. It may be frustrating, but he wouldn't trade the quiet, candid moments she chooses to share with him for anything. They're his touchstones in the constant upheaval that has become his life. He would never complain, but it's been a lot to get used to and right now he's feeling homesick for the more predictable chaos of the Sanctuary proper.

Magnus, for all her globetrotting, is as comfortable here as she is anywhere else despite her aimless channel surfing which seems to be more for his benefit than anything else. He's still trying to prove himself to her. He knows it's ridiculous but he's trying to measure up to the impossible standards that she sets for herself. She may have hired him without a second thought, but he's not quite so sure. 

"Penny for your thoughts?" Magnus asks with poorly contained smile and he laughs at his usual line.

"Too much thinking," he agrees stretching out his legs and falling back on the bed. "Are you going to tell me what you're scheming?"

"Me?" Her appeal for innocence falls flat on its face when he snickers and she shrugs, a lopsided motion, and holds up a hand.

"Magnus." He groans but she's already making an end run around his protests. The ball in her grasp jiggled and rustled to keep his attention.

"It's quite adorable I assure you."

"And fascinating. Goading your employee into making a fool of himself."

She frowns at him, equal parts curiosity and disagreement. "Surely it's more interesting than whatever it is you're not reading."

"It's a ball with a bunch of ribbons on it."

She shakes it again, the blue suede ribbons trembling and he curses as he can't help but track the moment with his eyes. A few months after he had come to work for her she had talked him into studying which stimuli were most likely to trigger a physical change on his part and to what extent each of these affected the rate of transformation. For him it had been weeks of allowing her to grate on his patience and self-control, but for her it had been different experience. He had expected the same detached curiously she showed with most of her work, but instead he had found a deep respect and a rather unfortunate playful streak. Unfortunate because play had proved to be his strongest trigger, the one stimuli so absent from his life he had yet to build up a resistance to it.

"Come now," she croons in a singsong voice and he feels his heart rate rise, not the rapid skip of nervous human arousal but the steadier beating of his vulpine form.

He growls a half groan of protest and moments later, when the world has settled down again, he's still glaring at her. The glare is much less effective in fox form, however, because she's already laughing, the coo she so badly wants to release held in check by the fact she knows it grates on his nerves. He may look adorable, but he's still Will and he would like to keep at least some of his dignity.

The ball shivers again and he dives for it one great bound, feet wrapping around her arm, kicking desperately as he sinks his teeth into the soft rubbery material. It shakes and shutters and then stills and he drops it before the more human part of his mind can realize she's faked him out. 

The ball disappears and he hears it land behind him on the floor with a soft thud. She's thrown it onto the carpet before the tv. He's gone off the bed, retrieving it in a heartbeat. He prances on it, playing at being an oversized kit for her amusement before darting away, crouched under the chair in the corner.

He's supposed to bring the ball back to her, a glorified game of catch the fox half of himself is more than happy to play, but he's holding back on her today, the ball tucked protectively beneath him. He can keep an eye on her from here and they eye each other, her with some amusement and him with unrelenting stubbornness.

He mouths playfully at the wooden leg of the chair. He's not biting hard enough to mar the wood, but from where she's sitting she doesn't know that. She sighs faintly in resignation and he crouches low, playfully, still working at the smooth wood with his teeth.

"Alright." She concedes and he grins before spinning to scoop up the ball and carry it back to her.

When he drops it into her lap, he nuzzles at her hand before settling down beside her. He's too amped up to shift back to human form and still too self-conscious to do it here in front of her within the sterile walls of their hotel room. 

They do have time to kill though, and while there's work to be done, he's willing to make this concession. Tucked close next to her to ward off the chill from the air conditioning he hums contentedly as she flips the tv back to the animal channel and settles her hand atop his head.


End file.
